Tag Archives: Hispanic

Unlike many social services programs, child support regularly interacts with both parents. Child support agencies in states, tribes and local jurisdictions often provide educational materials, such as brochures, fliers, posters, videos, infographics and website information about what to expect and how to begin a case with the child support program. The agencies make these materials available for all parents.

Many child support agencies use early intervention methods, such as phone calls and mailings, to reach both parents. Reaching out to parents early in the child support process can encourage and empower both parents to interact with the child support program in a positive way. Some child support agencies work with both parents together.

Agencies may collaborate with partners as another way to ensure that all voices are represented (such as fatherhood groups, domestic violence organizations, and Hispanic organizations). Child support agencies often bring together diverse groups to collaborate on projects that help to engage moms and dads. In December 2012, I issued a Policy Interpretation Question document that explains that child support is in a great position to foster collaborations to help families holistically.

Our program routinely accepts applications for services from either parent, and enforces support against both mothers and fathers. Our program reaches out to engage both custodial and noncustodial parents whether they are moms or dads or another guardian such as a grandparent. We also collect data in OCSE that will help us understand parents of either gender. And we stay abreast of research in the field. We know, for example, that in 2011, an estimated 18.3 percent of custodial parents were fathers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Populations Reports (“Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2011”).

Child support professionals follow trends as well. Pew Research Center data on the “Growing Number of Dads Home with the Kids” shows that the number of stay-at-home fathers is rising. Another Pew report, “5 Facts about Today’s Fathers,” says fewer dads are their family’s sole breadwinner as dads’ and moms’ roles are converging—over the years, fathers have taken on more housework and childcare duties, and women have increased their time spent in paid work.

Our new OCSE infographic helps us visualize OCSE data for FY 2013. It may help you picture some of the changes taking place in our program. As we continue to manage program changes, we will keep our focus on treating both mothers and fathers fairly in their custodial or noncustodial roles.

Infographics are everywhere. A staple on websites across the internet, those colorful, poster-like illustrations grab our attention and help us visualize data. They can display facts and figures, research and surveys, ideas and trends, or simply a marathon route. Infographics may be old communications, but recently they’ve been paired with social media to engage target audiences.

Child support professionals and stakeholders in the program have reason to use compelling communications to reach Hispanic and Latino Americans. Our country now claims nearly 51 million Hispanics, of which 37 percent are foreign-born.

Innovative infographics can spread messages effectively to our diverse caseload and help us share data and other content with all of you. The more we know about our stakeholders and families, the better we can tailor these communications. I hope you will share our storybook and infographics in your jurisdiction. Please let us know your ideas for creating others.

The United States population is becoming more diverse. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that by 2050, Hispanics and Latinos will constitute 30 percent of the U.S. population, up from 16.3 percent in 2010. We know that the composition of the child support program’s caseload is changing as well. We have more Latino and Hispanic families, as well as families from a range of other ethnic and immigrant groups.

Child support professionals are increasingly aware of our need to conduct outreach to the Hispanic community. We are doing more to tailor our customer service to address the linguistic and cultural barriers to navigating the child support program and accessing other social services. For example, we are offering more bilingual publications and advertising on local radio and TV.

We are forming and enhancing collaborations with community and faith-based organizations and working with practitioners and advocates, who can help us bridge the gap in providing information to Hispanic families about child support services. The organizations can offer accurate information, answer questions, provide advocacy services, and help to overcome parents’ mistrust and misunderstandings about the program.

This spring, an OCSE outreach training event in Florida furthered the child support program’s connections with community organizations (see the July 2011 Child Support Report). While we sometimes assume that community organizations are aware of our latest services, we know from events like the one in Florida the value of meeting face-to-face with representatives from organizations that have daily interaction with Hispanic families. Outreach events such as these serve as a valuable connection to the Hispanic community.

In Sonoma County, CA, the child support office is striving to increase collections among its Latino parents. The office created two postcards in Spanish and is disseminating them throughout the Latino community—with help from community organizations. The postcards explain child support services and help to alleviate apprehensions about connecting with a child support office. (See the postcards on page 4 in the Child Support Report.)

Earlier this month, OCSE was on hand to answer questions at the League of United Latin American Citizens’ annual conference in Cincinnati with more than 20,000 participants. And we are looking forward to an outreach event later this month at the National Council of LaRaza’s annual conference, where a national Latino Family Expo draws more than 200 exhibitors and 40,000 attendees! At both events, OCSE staff members share a booth with Head Start (a great way to demonstrate cross-program collaboration) and demonstrate the OCSE online toolkit on a laptop for passersby.

Recently, HHS announced a new initiative to use Promotores de Salud to strengthen outreach and education on the availability of health services and insurance coverage to underserved Hispanic and Latino communities. The federal work group guiding the initiative represents several HHS offices including the Administration for Children and Families. OCSE will pay close attention as this initiative takes off.

We also plan to stay tuned-in to ways we can further our outreach to the Hispanic and Latino families through multiple channels of communication. Two national surveys conducted in 2010 by the Pew Research Center—the Pew Hispanic Center’s 2010 National Survey of Latinos and the Pew Internet and American Life Project’s Health Tracking Survey—made some very interesting findings. Did you know that 91 percent of Latinos say they get news from network, local, or cable television? Or that nearly half get their news in both English and Spanish? Or that Hispanics are more likely than whites to engage in instant messaging—an outreach opportunity for us?

Is technology helping your agency communicate with Spanish-speaking parents? Do you have a Facebook page that answers questions in Spanish? (Hispanics, like everyone else, use Facebook, says this blog). Do you post blogs that allow readers to submit comments, or use other social media to reach Hispanic and Latino families?

Let us know in your comment on this blog.

OCSE is learning, too. The more knowledge we can gain about our Hispanic parents, the better we’ll be able to reach out and offer responsive services to families.